Un|Fixed Homeland, Aljira Center for Contemporary Art, 2016 Catalog: Un|Fixed Homeland | Page 26

A Brief History of Migration in Guyana

A Brief History of Migration in Guyana

Guyana , a multi-cultural nation of Amerindians , British , Portuguese , Africans , Indians , and Chinese , is the only English-speaking country in South America . In tandem , the country ’ s religious landscape reflects its dynamic population : Christian , Muslim , Hindu , and Catholic , among others . Guyana ’ s location in the northeastern region of the continent in the heart of the Amazon and on the Caribbean Sea , coupled with a history of British colonization shared with nearby Caribbean islands , allows for the nation ’ s cultural identity as one defined as a hybrid between Caribbean and South American . Beginning in the sixteenth to the nineteenth century , Guyana ’ s lands were subjected to European explorers and colonists , its territory changing hands among the Spanish , Portuguese ,
Dutch and finally , British empire . From the early 1600s to the 1800s , the British utilized the enslavement of Africans in their vigorous pursuit of wealth via sugar production . When slavery was abolished in 1834 , the British instituted the system of indentured servitude that lasted until 1917 , bringing Indian and Chinese laborers into the colony — a measure that would later define Guyana ’ s modern multi-cultural landscape and also set the tone for decades of ethnic conflict between Africans and Indians . Often violent and politically explosive , the ethnic tensions fueled and exploited by the British themselves would scar Guyana throughout the 20th century .
In 1948 , the British Nationality Act gave British citizenship to all people living in its
unpack global realities of migration , tease out symbols of decay and loss , and avoid trappings of nostalgia by envisioning avenues out of displacement and dislocation . In tandem , the exhibition provokes several critical questions : How does the photographic medium express the tensions between place and placeless-ness ? How can we turn to the photograph to inform and challenge our current framing of the experiences of migration and diaspora , nationality and belonging , immigrant and citizen ? What shifts occur in the migration narrative when photographs themselves cross geographic borders ?
Un | Fixed Homeland showcases work spanning five decades of art . The oldest work in the show , Frank Bowling ’ s Mother ’ s House with Beware of the Dog ( 1966 ) to its most recent , Kwesi Abbensetts ’ s You Booked Your Passage ( 2016 ) mirror Guyana ’ s 50-year journey from British colony to independent nation . The biographies of the artists themselves also reflect this history — ranging from 82 to 30 years old , featured in the exhibition are the artists who were born when the country was still under British rule and saw it struggle through its transition to shirk a colonial past . Other artists have only known their homeland as an independent nation , while others live outside its borders and connect to Guyana